OKCupid admits to experimenting on users

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - When traditional dating doesn't work out, more and more people are turning to online dating to find that special someone. One online dating website made a confession this week, saying it experimented on users. Their revelation has some people up-in-arms, and users dumping the site.

OKCupid confessed to three different experiments on its blog this week, but It's just one in particular that people are voicing issues with. The dating site's blog admits it manipulated match compatibility results just to see how they were influenced by the number. The users it put together weren't actually a match.

People have taken to the blog saying the experiment was unethical and disrespectful. Some say it wasn't an ethical move, and has taken advantage of people putting themselves out in a vulnerable state.

Taylor Whitehead is against experimenting on website users with out telling them. "I don't understand why they would do that when they can take the right percentages and put people together either way," Whitehead said.

Some say they hope the experiment helps improve the site.

The blog says experiments are how website's sort out what ideas are bad and how good ideas can get better. It prefaced the statement by talking about Facebook, which revealed it also experimented with users news feed's and faced a backlash for it last month.

"If they ask you and you approve it, it should be okay," Whitehead continued. "But if not, then it should be against the website's policy. They're setting two people up that think they're compatible, when they get together they couldn't be compatible. Which means, I mean, that it's a waste of their own time and effort."